The Young and the Hopeless
Chapter 10: Big Bang
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The scene at the park was reminiscent of the mall but, if the screaming voices were to be any indication, not nearly as terrible. To her left, Beast Boy was pulling a gang of pre-schoolers onto his back with his trunk, his tough elephant hide fending off the starbolts that he couldn't avoid. A bubble of dark energy surrounded the children and their green rescuer while Raven's other hand shielded those who had been separated by the initial attack.
Parks were supposed to be safe. Banks were never safe and museums were safe only some of the time. Apparently Starfire's "evil, vile, most horrible" twin hadn't known. Or perhaps it had. Quite frankly, she didn't want to think about it.
The, surprisingly quickly recovered, Tamaranean was currently flying the frightened park patrons to safety while the Titan's fearless leader was attempting to secure the scene. Raven silently admitted he was doing a fairly good job though it couldn't have been that hard. After all, no one actually wanted to venture into the park with a melting pretend Tamaranean. Or supposed melting pretend Tamaranean. The purple suit that had fit so well on Blackfire's body double seemed to sag on the Starfire clone. No to mention it had been completely laid to waste during the first attack.
Blue light blazed out of the corner of the empath's eye and she whipped around to see Cyborg firing a series of rapid laser cannon blasts at the imposter. Seemingly unfazed, the now somewhat green tinted, Starfire double continued to flit around the park oblivious of the attack. Violet eyes squinting hard, Raven nearly doubled over at the impression she got from her mind skimming.
The fake wanted Robin, bad. And it wanted Raven and Starfire's heads on a pike almost as badly. This was a very bad thing for the two women in question. Then again, it was Cyborg who sailed past in the air and dug a trench as his body slid across the turf.
Starfire lighted at his side and the half demon growled, her half machine, half human friend was out cold. She was unable to focus on just how many ways she was going to make the fake suffer because Beast Boy had courageously joined the fray to protect the honor of his fallen friend.
Mistake one: do not allow your boyfriend and colleague to join into battle with a psychotic alien sampling Tamaranean DNA. Mistake two: do not lose your head when said boyfriend turns up looking broken in the sandbox.
Unfortunately, try as she might, Raven couldn't keep her teeth from drawing blood inside her cheek when a pair of twin starbolts sent a bloodied dinosaur skidding halfway across the park. She ignored Robin, who was shouting orders above Cyborg's lifeless body, and shook off Starfire's offending hand. This all was becoming entirely too much. Rising up several feet from the ground, narrowed eyes completely devoid of color, the goth hero was surrounded in a swirling darkness. Enveloping a park bench in the same energy, she sent it flying in the clone's direction and smirked when it found its mark with a satisfying thump. It didn't take much longer for large trees to be sent flying in the same direction, playground equipment and bicycles followed. Raven felt a snap, somewhere deep inside her body, and couldn't help but remember Gar's wish so many weeks ago. If she was going to lose control, it was going to be for a damn good reason.
Whatever the fucking thing was, it was going to pay for hurting what was hers.
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The sky was turning black and the ground shook with the force of Raven's power, Robin continued shouting nonsensical orders, hoping that it would break the hold her unleashed powers had over her. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Starfire dragging Beast Boy from his broken spot inside the sand to join the fallen Cyborg. Both were finally beginning to stir and the Tamaranean was doing her best to keep them quiet.
"Just keep them still, Star."
"Boy…Wonder…"
His head whipped around to catch sight of the fake, which seemed to be falling apart at the seams, and was dutifully ignoring Raven's attempts to dismember it. Added to its borrowed powers of flight, it seemed to dissolve and shimmer out of the way. When the occasionally charged piece of scenery would manage to hit the clone, it would simply shake it off and continue dipping and bobbing in order to get the best view of Robin.
"How quaint, Robin, the creature thinks it has a chance with you. Quaint, quaint, quaint…and now I'm going to rip it apart limb by limb by…"
A quickly thrown grappling hook managed to sail around Raven's ankle as she went flying past, the green slim that had replaced the fake's orange tinted arm still clutching around her neck. He prayed the tilt of her head was just a trick of light and that Beast Boy wouldn't wake to see her crashing down to earth. Clenching his fists, Robin clipped the hook to his utility belt and dove as the line began retracting. Somehow he managed a mouth full of dirt and more than a handful of the Titan's empath. And even though he couldn't quite see it, he could feel the charge through the air as Starfire zoomed past towards Raven's attacker.
"Damn it, Star, don't…"
He was struggling to his feet but it wasn't doing much good. Tripping on a ripped up tree, barely catching the girl in his arms as he tumbled, Robin managed to kneel down beside the other two laid out members. He couldn't, not with all his thoughts jumbled together and racing, remember a time when he'd fought Star, but, he could remember her recounting her fights with her sister. Somehow this creature had adapted from the last time and was no longer masking its DNA. It was evolving and shifting back and forth. A green, melting Star might be replaced with a deadly gagging arm or retractable limbs. The masked leader felt absolutely helpless.
Dragging himself up to standing and clutching at his belt, he staggered towards the fighting twins. At times it almost seemed too surreal to watch his girl fighting herself and had to shake his head to correct his hazy vision. Raven's words echoed in his head and he hoped the creature would continue to ignore him as a combative threat.
For Star's sake, he forced himself to continue standing. If Dr. Sarah was correct, he only had one shot at this.
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"You killed people…you hurt my friends…and you will not, will not have my Robin."
The creature continued to feel less solid and Starfire decided, in a singular moment of clarity, that it was a wondrous thing indeed. Her hands had gone numb cracking her own ribs, or, copies of her own ribs and she wondered just how the disgusting thing continued to weave through the air. It should be dead and she had no qualms in running it into the ground.
It wouldn't speak, or couldn't, and only occasionally did it utter her own words back to her. Words that referred back to her Robin, it was enough to make the Tamaranean's blood boil. She hadn't wanted to rip a being's heart from its chest since she had first found herself the captive of the Psions. Briefly she wondered if the creature even had a heart and then realized it didn't matter.
She gasped hard as the other her liquefied and slipped through her fingers, then wrapped around her waist and squeezed hard. Fighting for breath, Starfire shut her eyes tightly and felt her body reverberate with green energy. Screaming loudly as the air around her exploded with solar waves, the red head sunk down and out of its loosened grasp.
Coughing hard, wondering if the fake had returned the favor and broken some of her bones, her green eyes sought out Robin and red hair flopped into her face as she nodded wildly. The creature had stopped resembling her form entirely and the floating goop was slowly dripping from its suspended position in the air.
"Now…before it…"
She watched, blood dripping from her nose, as the polymer container sailed through empty space and opened in a flash of light. A smile broke her lips as the clank of metal preceded the sharp click shut and her attention became completely focused on the cybernetic man rising from the park grounds.
"Fuck, Star, you let that tub of jello do that to you?"
"Cyborg…I must demand that you shut up before I manually remove your vocal cords with my hands."
"Raven!"
All were surprised when the Tamaranean rushed from her hunched spot to clutch Raven around the waist, all but collapsing in the process. She didn't seem to mind it when the dark haired woman reversed their places and helped hoist her to her feet. Head lolling to the side, Starfire giggled when her heavy lidded eyes met Robin's.
"I think…I think we got…it."
"It's truly touching that you're all helping Star, Raven, but, couldn't someone pick me up? I think I landed wrong on my trunk…"
"When we get back…I swear to God we're going to talk about implementing a too much information clause."
"Shut up, tin can, and help me up."
Resting her head on Raven's shoulder, the alien princess forced a smile when Cyborg hoisted Beast Boy across his back. But, she didn't let her head loll against her chest until Robin had picked up the polymer container that imprisoned what was left of the creature.
"Dear friends, let's go home."
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Quick Note: Oh, God, is it really over? This is, my dears, the final chapter of The Young and the Hopeless. The Epilogue is finished and ready for upload (I couldn't write chapter 10 until it was out of the way), but this is the last real chapter. Thank you so much for staying loyal and keeping up…and for urging me to continue. I hope my first Teen Titans fic was up to snuff, I had an absolutely amazing time writing it. Expect more from me in the future – in the very near future. I just want to thank my readers one more time for being so amazing, you guys rock. Hard.